KRABI PROVINCE
Introduction
About 973 kilometers far from Bangkok, Krabi has some of the most attractive
scenery in Southern Thailand: stunning limestone cliffs fronting on fine white
beaches, coupled with fascinating islands in the Andaman Sea, bordering the
Southwestern of Thailand. With its sandy clay soil conditions, Krabi's plantations
are perfect for a variety of agricultural products, including rubber trees,
palms, mangos, coconuts, and coffee.
Diving
Destination
Best time for diving in Krabi is between November - April, the year after.
Phi Phi Islands, famed as among the most beautiful tropical islands of the world, has become one of the most popular tourist attractions of Thailand. Incorporated into the National Park in 1983, there are six islands in the group, namely Koh Phi Phi Don, Koh Phi Phi Leh, Koh Biddah Nok, Koh Biddah Nai, Koh Yoong, and Koh Mai Pai, with totally area of 42 square kilometers. Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh are two awesome sisters languish in the ocean like a pair of emerald jewels studding the emerald waters of Phang Nga Bay.
The name of Phi Phi is derived from Malay, and the original was "Pulao Pi ah Pi", where "pulao" is a Malay word for island. "Pi" pronounced with only a half "p" sound, was very close in pronunciation to the English word "be"; the "ah" was eventually dropped, so the name was said something like "Bi Bi". Later the "p" was pronounced with a stronger aspiration and the name became the "Phi Phi" or "Pee Pee" we know today.
Koh Phi
Phi offers more than 15 different dive sites with many walls, caves and caverns.
To visit Phi Phi Isalnds, visitors can take daily passenger ferry at a boat
jetty either from Phuket or Krabi.
Phi
Phi Don
With the land area of 28 square kilometers, the island's focal point can be
found at the twin bay formed by the Ton Sai and the Loh Talam bays. Ton Sai
situates the boat jetty where many retailers and places of accommodation are
found. Starting from there, trekking up the hill can lead to the scenic point
overlooking the famous twin bay.
Phi Phi Don, with its beautiful beaches surrounding the island, provides high-class
accommodations in a variety travelers can choose from. More accommodations can
be found at Laem Dong, situated on the northern area of the island. Aside from
its natural marine beauty, Laem Dong is also where a sea gypsy village of 15-20
households is found.
Loh
Samah Bay
At the entrance to Loh Samah Bay on Phi Phi Leh, there is a small cliff islet
that divers can complete their exploring with one wall diving.
- GPS
Coordinate: Lat. 07 42 408 N. Long. 098 46 540 E.
- U/W environment: The islet has walls on all sides and the highlight of the
dive is a narrow 15 meters deep canyon on the East side
- Maximum depth: 25 meters; average depth 17 meters
- Marine lives: schools of red snappers, grouper, colorful gorgonians, soft
corals and sea whips. Turtle can also be found, coming to feed on bubble corals
and other marine plants.
- Underwater visibility: 12-14 meters
Koh
Biddha Nok
Koh Biddha Nok is a small limestone cliff islet, two kilometres km south of
Phi Phi Leh. It is Phi Phi Islands' best dive site, due to its great diversity
of marine life.
- U/W environment: The cliffs descend straight into the sea and are covered
with soft corals and anemones of purple, green, blue and pink. This creates
magical, colourful wall diving site. Caverns and overhangs are plenty, with
a beautifully diversed finger reef replete with Gorgonian seafans, sea whips,
giant brain corals and bubble coral.
- Maximum depth: 35 meters ; average depth 20 meters
- Marine lives: Lionfish, bearded scorpionfish, bird wrasse and moon wrasse,
as well as larger species such as leopard sharks, blue fin trevally and honeycombed
grouper.
- Underwater visibility: 12 meters
Koh
Biddha Nai
Koh Biddha Nai lies one kilometre south of Phi Phi Leh. Like its larger neighbour,
Koh Bhida Nok, Koh Bhida Nai is a limestone cliff islet with similar underwater
terrain.
- GPS
Coordinate: Lat. 07 37 917 N. Long. 098 48 901 E.
- U/W environment: Its walls are perhaps less spectacular, but there are larger
fields of hard corals, such as staghorn coral reef and of gorgonians seafans
and sea whips.
- Maximum depth: 20 meters ; average depth 16 meters
- Marine lives: Nudibranch, schooling of groupers, butterfly fish as well as
squid and cuttlefish. . Divers are more than likely to come across leopard sharks,
especially active early mornings, or asleep on the sandy bottom during the day.
- Underwater visibility: 12 meters
Koh
Yoong
- GPS Coordinate: Lat. 07 49 060 N. Long. 098 46 194 E.
- U/W environment: Hard corals on the sandy bottom, alternated with pinnacles.
The north and the south of this island lie more interesting underwater world,
where little macro species can be found.
- Maximum depth: 30 meters; average depth 23 meters
- Marine lives: Nudibranch, sea horse, pipefish and other tiny rare critters.
- Underwater visibility: 8-10 meters
Koh
Lanta National Park
Koh Lanta Islands lies in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Southern Thailand
not far from Phuket. Twenty kilometers of white sand beaches with clear aquamarine
water are set against a backdrop of verdant mountainous jungle. While tourism
has grown quickly in the last few years, Koh Lanta has retained its traditional
charm and great natural beauty. Long a haunt of backpackers, the tourist facilities
have expanded and now offer a wide range of accommodation, although prices have
remained low. Almost all the resorts are small and most are family-run. Most
are built using natural, ecological materials and blend well into their surroundings.
Much of the island is owned by a clan of 'Sea Gypsies', a tribal culture dating back more than a thousand years. These seafaring 'Chao Ley', as they are called in Thai, retain their language and many ancient customs and ceremonies. They are natural fishermen and keep the island supplied with fresh seafood including shrimp, crayfish, oysters and more. The traditional economy of fishing, coconut and rubber plantations, rice paddies, prawn farming and fruit are now supplemented by growing tourism. The rest of the island is under the control of the Koh Lanta National Marine Park that protects the jungle and forest areas. Tree cutting is strongly restricted so most resorts are set in natural surroundings.
Koh Lanta
has a magical soothing effect on visitors - many people arrive planning to spend
a few days and stay for weeks and even months enjoying the friendly relaxing
ambience. The island residents have maintained their grace and charm, and the
island does not have the strongly business 'feel' that is prevalent on some
of the more developed islands and beaches.
Ha
Yai Group of Islands
Koh Ha Yai is a small group of five islands 25km west of Koh Lanta, separated
by channels over 50 meters deep. The water here is ordinarily quite clear and
visibility frequently exceeds 25 meters.
The highlight of diving here is a series of caves, or caverns on the largest
of the islands, Koh Ha Yai. The emerald light filtering through the cave entrance
at sunrise is quite magical. The caves are safe to enter, even without a light,
as the entrances to the first caves are large. You can surface inside the caves
and see stalactites hanging down from the ceiling above.
If you enjoy swim-throughs then try the one on the wall slightly to the right
of the main (right-hand) entrance. Swim through the tiny entrance, then vertically
downwards. Make a sharp left, and squeeze out the exit point. Hey presto, you're
back in the main cave chamber!
- GPS
Coordinate: Lat. 07 25 369 N. Long. 098 53 393 E.
- U/W environment: A series of caves for adventurous divers to explore up to
100 m long.
- Maximum depth: 25 meters
- Interesting activities Cavern diving
- Marine lives: forest of soft corals, sea whips, gorgonians, and sea anemones;
schools of fish, nudibranch, manta ray and whale shark
- Underwater visibility: 10-14 meters
Hin
Muang Hin Daeng
Geographical
Characteristic::
Hin Daeng is a huge underwater rock protruding three metres above the surface.
The southern side of Hin Daeng descends to over 60m and on the eastern side
where the slope is gentler, two long ridges descend out into the blueness. Hin
Daeng's Red Soft Coral is lush and tall.
Hin Muang, a completely submerged rock, derives its name from its dense covering
of Purple soft corals. The rock itself is approximately 200m by 20m and is shaped
like an immense loaf of bread. It has an incredible amount of marine life and
divers may encounter with whale sharks and manta rays around the rocks, well
known as the second home in Thailand.
- GPS
Coordinate: Lat. 07 09 129 N. Long. 098 49 242 E. (Hin-Muang)
Lat. 07 09 126 N. Long. 098 49 297 E. (Hin-Daeng)
- U/W environment: The walls are decorated with large seafans of red, white
and orange. Clouds of glass fish, school around the fans and rocky out-crops.
Carpets of anemones cover the shallower sections of the pinnacle.
- Maximum depth: 30 meters; average depth 18 meters.
- Marine lives: Ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp, decorated crabs, long-nosed
hawkfish; whale shark and manta ray around these submerged rocks. Grey reef
sharks and leopard sharks are often seen patrolling the depths.
- Underwater visibility: 15 - 20 meters
Topography
Krabi, covering 4,709 square kilometers with its shoreline of 144.80 kilometers
in length, has mountainous physical geography broken by highlands and plains
on the mainland. With 130 enchanting islands in the Andaman Sea to explore,
visitors will never tire of this piece of paradise. Clear water and abundant
marine life make diving here highly enjoyable. Further south the Lanta islands,
with their unspoiled beaches, are preparing to be the next big destination.
Climate
Weather in Krabi is typically that of the tropical monsoon, providing the province
with just two seasons, the hot season from January to April, and the rainy season
from May to December. Monsoon winds, which changes according to season, blown
from the southeast, the southwest, and the northeast. Temperatures range between
17 and 37 degrees Celsius.
How to get there
By Car
From Bangkok, use Highway No.35 via Samut Sakorn, Samut Songkram and turn into
Highway No.4 passing Petchaburi to Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Ranong, and
Phang-Nga Provinces before reaching Krabi a total distance of 946 kilometers.
An alternate route is to take Route 4 to Chumphon and then turn onto Route 41.
This leads through Lang Suan and Chaiya Districts of Chumphon to Wieng Sa District
of Surat Thani from there follow Route 4035, passing Ao Luk District of Krabi,
back onto Highway No. 4, and down to the town of Krabi. This shortcut is just
814 kilometers.
By Bus
From Bangkok to Krabi, both air-conditioned and non air-conditioned buses, taking
approximately 12 hours, leave the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok daily in
the evening. For further information, contact Southern Bus Terminal (Southbound)
(Borommaratchonnani Road) Tel: (+66) 2435 1199, 2435 1200, Krabi Bus Terminal
Tel. (+66) 7521 5718, or visit http:///www.transport.co.th/
By Train
There is no direct train service from Bangkok to Krabi. From Bangkok Railway
Station visitors can take the train to one of the following stations: Trang
Province Station, Phun Pin Station in Surat Thani Province, or Thung Song Station
in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. From any of these places a bus may be taken
onward to Krabi. Regarding train schedules and costs, contact SRT's office in
Bangkok at hotline (+66) 1690 or (+66) 2223 7010, 223 7020 or visit its website
at http:///www.srt.or.th/ or http:///www.thailandrailway.com/
By Air
Thai Airways International operates flights from Bangkok to Krabi daily. Flight
tickets can be reserved at tel.(+66) 1566, 2280 0060, 2628 2000 or visit at
http://www.thaiair.com/. Alternatively, PB Air also provides daily flights from
Bangkok to Krabi. For further information, call (+66) 2261 0220 - 5 or visit
its website at http://www.pbair.com/ .